The Dangerous Sin of Omission
by ilovetvalot
Summary: Can Dave forgive Emily when a sin of omission threatens their relationship?


_**Author's Note: Thanks to everyone who has been patiently waiting for our stories to be posted. We appreciate your support and apologize for any delays. Real life, however, has taken precedence! We always want to be able to provide you with quality stories and chapters, so our postings may be a bit sporadic over the next month.**_

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**The Dangerous Sin of Omission**

Slipping the necklace around her neck, she felt a shiver slide down her spine as she heard the sound of a slamming door in the not-so-far-off distance.

Eyes fluttering closed for a moment, Emily Prentiss tried to prepare herself for the embodiment of righteous anger now stomping up the stairs of her elegant brownstone...tried to mentally catalog her arguments to what she knew was bound to be a volatile confrontation.

But, hell, she really didn't have a leg to stand on in this coming moment..and she knew it. But she was a Prentiss, damn it. And they never just conceded. Not in business and not at love.

And as the door slammed open with a crash, she was well aware that this emotion far exceeded any she had ever felt in any boardroom.

"You're late," she said, feigning nonchalance as she gazed at his thunderous face now reflected in her cheval mirror. Damn, perhaps she'd underestimated the level of his anger. His mottled complexion and lips pressed into a thin line were the only signs she needed to know that he'd reached a level of anger she'd never seen before.

Sure, they'd argued during the past year that they'd dated. With their personalities, it had been unavoidable. But he'd never looked like that..a cross between disgusted and enraged.

"I'm late," he repeated flatly, his lips barely moving as he propped one shoulder against the doorframe of her bedroom and dropped a hand into his trousers. "That's what you have to say to me...that I'm late?"

When all else failed, avoidance was key. "We're both running late. Your tux is hanging inside the bathroom. Mother will be expecting us at the embassy in half an hour." Perhaps she could curtail this fight until after the benefit...when he'd had a couple of glasses of scotch in him and his temper was a little less flammable.

"Fuck your mother and her benefit," Dave spat from his position at the door, not moving an inch toward the waiting monkey suit. "You lied to me," he said, his eyes glittering as they met hers in the mirror.

"Dave, can we please discuss this later? Unlike you, I don't have the benefit of ignoring the Ambassador's summons," Emily said softly, her tone perfectly modulated in spite of the slight pitter patter inside her chest.

"Ah, so you can keep your word to her, but not the guy you claim you love," Dave replied snidely. "Interesting fact, that."

"It wasn't like you imagined, Dave," Emily sighed, turning to meet his dangerous eyes head on.

"You deliberately kept it a secret from me that you and Matthew were communicating. DAILY, Emily," he roared. "After I told you that it made me uncomfortable...after I explained all my reasons and you AGREED, you went behind my back and have been talking to him for MONTHS."

Inhaling a shuddery breath as his words literally bounced off the walls of the large bedroom, Emily shook her head. "If you'll just let me explain..."

"Explain what?" Dave snapped, his tone lethal. "How you could lie to my fucking face? How you could casually disregard my request? Or, maybe, how you could confide intimate details of our life together to a man that dumped you in your time of need?"

"Dave," Emily said calmly, holding up a hand. "It was completely innocent."

"No," Dave snarled, slashing an angry hand through the air. "No, Emily, it's not innocent when you lie to your partner about it. The day you hid it from me, it became by its very nature a very non-innocent action! When I looked you in the eye this morning and asked you, point blank, if you'd talked to him recently and you denied it, it WAS NOT innocent. YOU made it anything but innocent."

"Because I knew how you'd react! Like some jealous lover intent on staking his claim," Emily accused before she could think about the wisdom of her words.

Eyes widening, Dave laughed, no humor in his emotion. "Really? So, I'm supposed to welcome this guy with open arms? He abandoned you, Emily. He's the reason you don't trust anyone! He's the reason that when you have something good...something really good...with a man that loves you, you do everything you can to fuck it up."

"We're friends, Dave," Emily replied tightly, refusing to acknowledge his claims when she knew she had made the wiser choice. "That's all. There was nothing illicit about any of it. Occasionally, I'd talk to him about us...about the challenges we faced..."

"You mean you talked to him about all the things you refused to discuss with me," Dave snarled, his eyes narrowing in anger once again.

"Our discussions tended to end one way, Rossi, and you know it," Emily snapped, her eyes flashing.

"I guess you want to blame that on me, too," Dave shrugged. "You seem to put most sins at my feet according to good 'ole Matthew."

"Wait," Emily choked, holding up a hand. "You've talked to Matthew?" she asked softly.

Nodding, Dave smiled grimly. "Called this morning while you were in the shower. In my defense, I thought it was my phone ringing," he said, holding up his own identical cell phone. "But imagine my surprise when it's my lover's former lover calling to chit chat."

"David..."

"Shut up," Dave exploded, taking a step forward. "I didn't tell you we'd talked because you already had lied to me once today and I wasn't sure I could listen to you tell another. I will tell you that your friend was a fount of information. He'd took great delight in filling me in on all the things that I didn't know about you. About things I damn sure didn't want him to know about me!"

"Just give me a chance to..."

"If you say explain, so help me God!" Dave retorted, turning to angrily pace the length of her bedroom. "You told him about my worries about children, Em," Dave said softly, his tone only strengthening the degree of his betrayal. "You told him private things that I haven't even shared with two of my ex-wives."

"I needed someone to confide in," Emily said weakly, well aware of how ridiculous that statement sounded once she said it out loud. "Things have been moving so fast between us and you knew how much I wanted to have a child..."

"So you chose the guy that turned his back on you?" Dave grimaced at her. "Instead of one of our friends, you go to a guy you know I have qualms with...a guy that I asked you to let go?"

"You're making it sound like I was engaged in a sordid affair, Dave," Emily defended herself, reaching for his arm. "And you know I wasn't."

"No," Dave growled, jerking back, her touch making him sick to his stomach. "An affair I could have dealt with. This was deliberately deceitful. It was a betrayal of my trust. It was calculated. And it was cruel. And if I'd done the same thing to you, you'd never forgive me," he bit out, each word deliberate.

And each word hit its mark as Emily took a faltering step backward. "You can't seriously be thinking about ending our relationship over a stupid mistake."

"I'm not thinking about anything. My decision was made the instant you looked me in the eyes and lied to me. I just wanted to see if you'd ever be woman enough to come clean. Guess I was doomed to disappointment, huh?" he asked with a heart that ached.

"Dave, no," Emily whispered, shaking her head in denial as her heart pounded against her ribcage. She was going to lose him over this? "It was a simple sin of omission."

"It was a premeditated, intentional prevarication. Don't you dare distort the facts, Emily," Dave retorted, pointing an accusing finger at her. "I gave you an opportunity to be honest. I waited all day. You made a choice. You took a gamble. And you lost."

"This isn't poker, Dave!" Emily exclaimed, her eyes dilating as she watched him turn toward the door.

"You're right," Dave stated, pausing at the doorway again, his hand clenching the door frame. "But if it was, this is where I'd say, "I fold'," he said sadly before walking out.

And as she sank down on the bed behind her, Emily listened as his footsteps fell against the staircase, each step heavy and defeated. Wincing as she heard the front door softly close, she felt the first tear land against her cool cheek.

It was abundantly clear that a sin of omission could be every bit as deadly to a relationship as the most callous of acts. And she'd committed both.

And lost the most precious thing in her world because of it. Because while David Rossi might eventually forgive her, he'd never forget.

And neither would she.

_**Finis**_

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_**Dedicated to my husband and all our brave men and women fighting far from home!**_


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